A Baby Boomer Dreams of Arabian Horses - Rhythm's Story - Tommy Garland - Part 6

Part One of the Baby Boomer Series

Rhythm's Story starts here

This winter was tough in Massachusetts. There were times the roads were too bad to haul the Arabian horse to school him. But Brittany and Rich hung in there getting him over to be ridden as much as possible between snow days and days Brittany had to work. Brittany was enjoying this time with her horse. Tommy Garland made lots of calls trying to get Brittany to come back to work for him.

It took a bit to get the horse back on track after having the time off when Brittany was gone to Nationals. Despite the fact the horse was naughty arriving at the riding facility, calling out to the mares, he still maintained his work ethic. Once Brittany's leg was over his back and she was in the saddle, the horse went to work and did his job. The horse would be legged back up and coming right along in time to go to Virginia.

When it was finally time to put the Arabian horse on a van and send him off to Garlands, Rich was actually doing a pretty good job of getting through to Rhythm. It had taken the man sometime to establish himself as the leader over the red horse but it had happened. The result was they had become great friends. Rich Baker had developed the kind of relationship with Rhythm as the horse had known here with Dave.

Rich had known the horse was awesome when first stepped off the van. The man had now learned what it was like to be in Rhythm's inner circle. He had never owned a horse quite like this before making Rhythm all the more important to his family. Rich's relationship with the horse had changed so dramatically it was going to be hard for him to send the horse away at all. Only for his daughter would he make this sacrifice.

With this new found relationship with the horse Rich also understood even more the importance of Rhythm going to the right trainer. He now knew the depth of the horse's trust when he chose to give it and the depth of his fear when he didn't trust. This horse couldn't deal with a trainer who would beat him up for being naughty. The horse needed a real horseman to train him.

Despite the horse's couple of private lessons with Tommy Garland, Tommy still didn't have a clear picture of what this horse was about. He only knew what he could see on the surface. He hadn't yet broken through that tough guy facade the horse wears so well.

Tommy had gotten the horse to behave but he hadn't gotten far enough into the training to get the kind of commitment that I knew the horse could make. The techniques that Tommy used with the horse were the same ones I had learned from Harvey Jacobs. It was clear to me, how Rhythm would respond at Garlands. But it wasn't clear to Tommy. By the time the horse was to leave for Virginia, Tommy was fine with the horse being ridden by the assistant trainer......... so were Rich and Brittany.

I called about at the end of the first week in January to see how Rhythm's trip had gone only to find the horse had not left yet. With the bad winter weather all up and down the coast the horse was still at home but a pick up date was scheduled.

Rich was still working to put together the things that Garland's required. The horse needed a new wardrobe......... blankets, liners, sleazies the whole nine yards. He was headed for the big leagues and they expected him to arrive in style.

Later the following week, Rhythm was on the van heading to Virginia. Rich Baker said he cried when the horse disappeared in the van. Even when I spoke to him later it was clear his heart was heavy the horse was gone.

To be continued................



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